At U.S. Open, Venus Williams Beats Kimiko Date-Krumm…and a Bee

Former Champ Wins Her First-Round Match at U.S. Open

ENLARGE

Venus Williams, the No. 19 seed, overcame 36 unforced errors to defeat Japan's Kimiko Date-Krumm in three sets. Both players were pestered on the court by the same bee during the second set.
Associated Press

Around 90 minutes into her first-round U.S. Open match on Monday, Venus Williams became the victim of some unsportsmanlike conduct. The offender was a renegade bee, which pestered her for more than a minute along the baseline as she attempted to serve.

"Make it go away," Williams told a pair of ball boys, one of whom smothered the insect with a towel and ran off with it.

Williams's opponent, unseeded Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan, was not so easily discarded—though she, too, was badgered by the bee during the second set and needed the assistance of a ball boy and two ball girls to shoo it away. It took Williams three sets to advance, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, and even when she seemingly had the match won at 5-0 in the third set, Krumm took three straight games to give Williams a scare.

But ultimately, Date-Krumm went the way of the bee.

With that, Williams took one more step forward in what has been a resurgent summer for the two-time Open champion.

At age 34, Williams hasn't won a major since Wimbledon in 2008. Her performance has fallen off dramatically since she revealed in 2011 that she had an autoimmune disease called Sjogren's syndrome. But in recent months, she has looked less like an old Venus and a little bit more like the Venus of old.

She nearly beat sixth-ranked Petra Kvitova this summer at Wimbledon, losing in three sets in a third-round classic. And earlier this month in Montreal, she beat her sister Serena in the semifinals before losing to Agnieszka Radwanska in the final.

Results aside, Williams has also demonstrated a certain level of endurance in playing 11 three-set matches since the start of Wimbledon.

"I was feeling better this summer and I had some better results," she said. "I never want to play three-setters. It's not in the plan. Somehow I ended up in these matches. I would like to think the more I play, the better I'll get at closing it out."

Williams, who hasn't finished a season ranked in the top 20 since 2010, entered the Open at No. 20. While that hardly makes her a favorite to win the tournament, it at least raises the question: Does she have one more Grand Slam run in her?

If she does, this may be her best opportunity. A potential fourth-round matchup with second-seeded Simona Halep looms as perhaps the biggest hurdle along the way. But if Williams, the 19th seed, has learned anything from her seven Grand Slam titles, it is not to assume anything.

"Honestly, I have won slams where I didn't feel like I was playing my best," she said. "I have won when I felt like I wasn't prepared. I felt like I lost when I thought I was playing amazing. You can't ever tell what exactly it's going to take. If I would tell you every win that I have had, it took something a little bit different to win that tournament."

Unforced errors and errant serves are probably not the formula for a deep Open run. But on Monday, Williams overcame both her own mistakes and a feisty opponent.

Facing the oldest player in the tournament (Date-Krumm turns 44 next month), Williams committed 13 unforced errors in the first five games alone, falling behind 4-1 in the opening set. She finished with 36 unforced errors and hit just 44% of her first serves in.

Then came the bee. First, it went after Date-Krumm, interrupting her serve in the second set. Rather than swat it away with her racket, she tried to dodge the insect while waiting for court attendants to shoo it off, only to watch it find Williams on the opposite baseline later. Williams wouldn't take a swipe at the bee, either, though she managed to get it to land on her racket, enabling the ball boys to attack.

It was a deft move by a player who needs plenty more of them to rekindle her old Open glory.

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